Illustrating Stories as Comics

I could, potentially, illustrate almost all the stories I've written in comic form. My stories would average about 6 comics each, though it varies widely. Stories would end on a comic boundary, and new stories would start with a title panel (followed by several storytelling panels). Illustration style would probably vary from story to story.

People are more willing to look at comics than plain text ... it might get a readership of ... much more than my current readership of one. The individual comics wouldn't be very funny. My stories are not very suspenseful. There also isn't any suspense if the comics are illustrations of already-published stories. But each comic would be somewhat self-contained, conveying some exchange or thought or world-building. There also wouldn't be long-running characters, since each of my stories is its own little universe. Other than the Burkehammers, and Sweetpea, and Nevermore's intlit appreciation class.

At the rate I've been writing stories, I could produce three comics per week that way continuously. I know of several online comics that publish Monday Wednesday Friday (xkcd, Gunnerkrigg Court). No idea how/if they make money, but they do have an audience. Gunnerkrigg Court is elaborately drawn, not very funny, but has a long intricate plot, while xkcd tends to be very simply drawn and standalone funny jokes. So what I'm describing fits within the normal webcomic framework. Most webcomics publish far less than three times per week, they started out once then ran out of steam.

I've always wanted to publish a comic. But I couldn't find anything worthwhile, and producing that much content seemed beyond me. This doesn't address being worthwhile. But it does appear I'm already producing enough content. Just not illustrating it. When I wrote weekly cartoons in college it took an hour or two to illustrate a comic. These stories feel like they call for more detailed illustration than my college comics: I'm guessing four hours to illustrate each comic (once I was up to speed on illustrating). I don't have that much spare time.

The Old Gum is an example of a story I've illustrated (although I didn't write it, it's an old Boy Scout skit). It happened to lend itself to 24 single-panel comics, which would get terribly tedious if they were published one panel three times a week. Most of my stories would do better with multi-panel comics, three to tweve panels. Webcomics are very flexible that way. For example, consider how Marbles would look as a series of mostly eight-panel comics, about twenty such comics.

Although I've always wanted to publish a comic strip, I've never wanted it to be the main thing I do. The main thing I do should be used tech, not entertainment. Used tech is useful whether or not anyone is thinking about it. It lets you get more done. Software, physical inventions, laws. Music, stories, comics are entertainment. In both cases I want to build ideas, not things, because things there is only one of them.

Looking at YouTube, it sounds like the tools for doing digital 2d artwork are either an iPad Pro + Apple Pencil + ProCreate, or a Wacom Cintiq + Wacom Pro Pen + Photoshop + Windows PC. Photoshop needs a $54.99/month subscription. The Apple route has no recurring costs.


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